“…Due to its importance to the hydrological cycle over East China and the severity of the associated disasters, the interannual and interdecadal variations and long-term trends of the wintertime precipitation (or the wintertime extreme precipitation) have received considerable attention from the scientific community (Ao & Sun, 2016;Choi et al, 2016;Danco et al, 2016;Jia & Ge, 2017;Yuan et al, 2014;Zhai et al, 2005;Zhang et al, 2014Zhang et al, , 2015. Further, the routine forecast accuracy of the extreme snowfall events is relatively low (Byun et al, 2008;Lee et al, 2016;Lin & Wu, 2012;Yu, 2013;Zhou & Zhai, 2016). Therefore, understanding the formation mechanism for the extreme snowfall events is crucial to improve weather forecasts and mitigate negative societal impacts.…”